TelcoDR’s Summer Reading List 2025
Ahhhhh, summer. Your European colleagues have vanished until September, the office is eerily quiet, and you’re secretly browsing flights to Santorini. But while everyone’s mentally checked out for summer, the smartest operators are forming their artificial intelligence (AI) plans.
These guys are doubling down on AI-first strategies, public cloud migration, and vendor liberation. They’re not just surviving the summer doldrums—they’re using this time to one-up the competition.
Consider this your beach reading—the kind that’ll make you the smartest person at the hotel bar AND give you some serious ammunition for when you inevitably get dragged into that “digital transformation” conversation over aperitifs. I figured it’s the perfect time to serve up our greatest hits from the first half of the year.
What follows is our best content since January, organized into four categories that every telecom exec should master before their next board meeting:
- Becoming an AI-first telco—because everyone should be working toward that, not just talking about it
- Breaking free from legacy vendors—because before you can be AI-first, you have to deal with the reality of today’s vendor prison
- Monetization—the all-important topic of how to make more money (your CFO will thank you)
- Getting started with AI—for those still struggling to nail down your strategy and get projects off the ground
Here’s the list:
Becoming an AI-first telco
VIDEO: Building an AI-first telco
My sold-out and oversubscribed talk at MWC25’s GenAI Summit broke down exactly how telcos need to tackle the legacy tech debt in their BSS estate to build an AI-first operation. This YouTube version is perfect for your flight to Mykonos. At Totogi, where I’m acting CEO, we’re not building a BSS replacement system—we’re creating a telco ontology so you can infuse AI into your entire BSS estate. Because who has time for rip-and-replace when there’s money to be made?
🍹 Recommended pairing: “Tech Debt Detox” – sparkling water with cucumber and mint. Clean, refreshing, and gets the job done without the bloat.
PODCAST: Telefónica Germany moves the network to the public cloud
I sat down with Mallik Rao, chief technology and enterprise business officer at Telefónica Germany, who’s leading the world’s first brownfield migration of a 5G core network to Amazon Web Services. Spoiler alert: time-to-market improvements (2x faster than on-prem!) matter more than cost savings. This episode is essential listening for anyone ready to move their core to the public cloud.
🍸 Recommended pairing: “Migration Martini” – gin and vermouth, stirred not shaken. Because smooth transitions require finesse.
PODCAST: Vodafone’s new rules with open APIs, cloud-native, and AI
Dr. Lester Thomas, Vodafone Group’s head of new technologies, shares the company’s bold “Composable IT” approach: machine-readable standards, open-source collaboration, and ditching traditional procurement entirely. Vodafone’s transformation isn’t just impressive—it’s a blueprint for operators ready to move beyond legacy constraints. Required listening for anyone who’s tired of vendor BS.
☕️ Recommended pairing: “Open API Iced Tea” – cold brew with a splash of lemon. Light, refreshing, and perfectly composed. Like your future IT architecture.
Breaking free from legacy vendors
BLOG: Amdocs is ruining your business to keep their empire. AI to the rescue!
Your vendors love it when you’re trapped in integration hell—it’s how they make their billions! While they drag their feet on TM Forum APIs, you’re burning 80% of your IT budget keeping their systems limping along. But AI can break the stranglehold and set you free. Today, not in five years.
🥃 Recommended pairing: “Vendor Lock-in Liberator” – whiskey sour with extra bitters. Because breaking free requires something strong.
BLOG: The AI-first telco won’t wait 5 years for Amdocs
We just slashed a system upgrade from six weeks to FOUR DAYS. That’s what freedom from vendor lock-in looks like in practice. While some operators face migration timelines measured in geological ages, intelligent, telco-specific AI is transforming our industry at lightning speed. Time to get on board or get left behind.
☕️ Recommended pairing: “Speed Demon Cold Brew” – double-shot espresso over ice with a splash of coconut water. Fast, efficient, and energizing.
BLOG: We’re helping a customer leave CloudSense. Here’s why that’s a GREAT idea.
Plot twist: We’re helping a customer exit our own product. We could play hostage negotiator with its data like other vendors, but here’s the thing—when Totogi’s AI-powered BSS Magic successfully moves this customer off CloudSense in months (not years), it’ll want more of what we provide. Confidence in your product means never having to trap customers to lock them in.
🥃 Recommended pairing: “Graceful Exit” – smooth bourbon neat. No chaser needed when you’re confident in your approach.
Monetization
BLOG: Totogi made a money machine
Want double-digit revenue growth? It can be as simple as feeding your event detail record (EDR) data into AI. Totogi has proven it works. Working with a Tier-1 operator, we unleashed our PlanAI and watched it deliver a 10% revenue boost in 12 weeks. While you’re sipping that piña colada, AI could be making you money.
🥛 Recommended pairing: “Revenue Generator” – fresh pineapple juice with sparkling water and a gold rim. Because making money should taste premium (and you can celebrate responsibly).
BLOG: AI’s value is in the app layer
As telcos pour hundreds of millions into AI foundation models, I wonder if they’re investing where they’ll get the biggest return. As large language models (LLMs) rapidly become commodities, the real gold is in the application layer—where AI can make the most business impact. Stop chasing shiny objects and start making money.
🍹 Recommended pairing: “Application Layer Layback” – layered cocktail with premium spirits on top. The good stuff rises to the surface.
Getting started with AI
PODCAST: The power of agentic AI with Appledore Research
The telco industry is in the midst of a GenAI revolution, and the technology is evolving so fast it’s hard to keep up. Appledore Research Principal Analyst John Abraham weighs in on agentic AI, the next generation of BSS, and how BSS Magic is poised to make legacy vendor lock-in a thing of the past. Essential listening for anyone who needs to sound smart at industry events.
🧉 Recommended pairing: “Agentic AI Adaptogen” – matcha latte with oat milk that changes color as you stir. Because AI that adapts is the future.
BLOG: Why your AI strategy isn’t working
AI isn’t enterprise software. Models evolve daily, costs collapse weekly, and by the time your committee approves anything, the tech has moved three generations. Stop trying to moonshot AI and start small, building up one win at a time. This covers what to stop doing, what to start, and how to get your AI strategy off the ground—before your competitors do.
🥛 Recommended pairing: “Strategy Pivot” – gin and tonic with a twist. Sometimes simple is better than complex.
BLOG: AI will cost jobs, lots of them. Stop lying about it.
I know what happens when leaders lie about workforce changes—the best people see through it and leave. But if you communicate AI’s impact early, invest in retraining, and treat employees like adults, you’ll see continued high performance even during transitions. Transparency isn’t just ethical—it’s better for business and better for your bottom line.
🥃 Recommended pairing: “Truth Serum” – fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice with a pinch of sea salt. Smart, honest, and wakes you up.
BLOG: AI doesn’t suck. You suck at AI
A shocking 61% of telco execs don’t believe AI is making their jobs easier. But listen: It’s not the AI. It’s you and your crappy prompts! Want better results? Bring your experience to AI. This blog shares five executive prompting techniques that’ll turn AI from a disappointment into your secret weapon.
🥃 Recommended pairing: “Prompt Perfection” – perfectly crafted old fashioned. Because to make AI sing, the details matter.
That’s your summer reading list! Whether you’re catching up on this content from a beach chair in Ibiza or sneaking reads between meetings while your European colleagues are properly disconnected, you’ll be armed with the insights you need to drive real transformation. When you come back tan, rested, and ready to tackle Q3, you’ll have the knowledge to kick some AI ass!
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